Impact of High-Pressure Processing (HPP) on Listeria monocytogenes—An Overview of Challenges and Responses

Abstract

High-pressure processing (HPP) is currently one of the leading methods of non-thermal food preservation as an alternative to traditional methods based on thermal processing. The application of HPP involves the simultaneous action of a combination of several factors—pressure values (100–600 MPa), time of operation (a few–several minutes), and temperature of operation (room temperature or lower)—using a liquid medium responsible for pressure transfer. The combination of these three factors results in the inactivation of microorganisms, thus extending food shelf life and improving the food’s microbiological safety. HPP can provide high value for the sensory and quality characteristics of products and reduce the population of pathogenic microorganisms such as L. monocytogenes to the required safety level. Nevertheless, the technology is not without impact on the cellular response of pathogens. L. monocytogenes cells surviving the HPP treatment may have multiple damages, which may impact the activation of mechanisms involved in the repair of cellular damage, increased virulence, or antibiotic resistance, as well as an increased expression of genes encoding pathogenicity and antibiotic resistance. This review has demonstrated that HPP is a technology that can reduce L. monocytogenes cells to below detection levels, thus indicating the potential to provide the desired level of safety. However, problems have been noted related to the possibilities of cell recovery during storage and changes in virulence and antibiotic resistance due to the activation of gene expression mechanisms, and the lack of a sufficient number of studies explaining these changes has been reported.